If I am not in (God's grace) may he put me there, and if I am may he so keep me.
~St. Joan of Arc

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Design on a Dime

For those of you who like to watch HGTV and try EVERY painting technique they show you....please think about this:

One day... you may want to sell your house...*********and one day someone may buy it even though it has this*********

on the walls of almost EVERY room.

And then some poor decorating challenged person like me comes along (I did not purchase this house but acquired it when I moved in with my husband. His EX wife picked it out. Goes along more with her personality- eh-chem...that's all I'll say about that.)

Fortunately, though I don't like some of the changes she made, she at least tore down some wallpaper and painted over some of this horrid sponge/rag rolling. UNfortunately...she didn't live here long enough to provide me with many rooms primered from this. As a matter of fact all that she did get painted over was the kitchen which was wallpapered, and the above bathroom. And though I will paint over those (well finish the kitchen since she only got it half way done) I am slightly grateful that it was she who tore down the wallpaper in the kitchen, and she who painted over the above bathroom. My husband painted over the pink living room and turned it into and office for himself. Boy is that a contrast - from pink to military nostalgia! He also painted over the red part of the rag roll in the blue/red room above, providing me with a primer coat on the bottom half.

So here are my befores of Anna's room:

This last one is with TWO coats of primer on it. After my frustration of seeing the horrid blue rag roll peeking through I decided there MUST be darker primer out there besides white. It never occured to me to tint the primer! I found tons of info on that, many sites stating that you should always tint primer gray. I will definitely try that next time. As for THIS time, I put another coat of white primer up and still could see faint blue rag roll. UGH. So last night we went out and bought another gallon of primer. This time I tinted it pink (which is the color I'm painting the room- hey I know it's not origingal, but you're lookin' at the mom of two boys. I'm excited to do a girls room therefore it MUST be pink.

16 comments:

This could be Design's first job. She has very little to do at the moment so she will have plenty of time to get it done for you :p (she's going to kill me for that, I can feel her warm breath on the back of my neck already. RUNNNNNNNNNNNN).

Oh and boy am I excited for late May when I can enlist the talents of my own design goddess!!!! I love her !!!!! She's beautiful!!!! And compasionate toward her painting challenged friends!!! And generous of her amazing talents (oh- and she paints too!!!!)

;)

Also, I found a ton of info on gray priming including several top notch sites that swear you should always primer with gray. We will definitely go with gray primer in the bedroom. It's not pictured but lets just say the dark navy blue rag roll on the creamy white background leaves you with the impression you're taking an inkblot test. Anna LOVES that paint actually! I can't even imagine how many coats of white primer that would take.

Anyway, the sites (I'll have to look up which ones, all say to use gray primer all the time. It supposedly gives a truer finished color- that is closer to your color sample-than white primer.

I will use white primer in the living room (also not pictured) b/c the rag roll itself is white in there.

As for the downstairs bathroom and pink rag roll living room shown above... those are two that Rick and his ex painted over. Although his ex left the pink rag roll living room alone. It was one of those UNUSED living rooms. pourquoi????

oh and I could totally see the gray thing since white, when added to a color makes it a tint (aka pastel). so a gray, being a mixture of the primary colors, would be a neutral color for a primer. How smart!

Gareth, if you come all the way from Ireland, we will allow you the honor of cleaning brushes, making tea, and soothing us with your wonderful poetry :)

Bought tons of organizing things today. Also have picked out everything for front porch/mulch bed beautifying this weekend. I will take before and after of that too. I need to paint and primer on the railing, buy a hanging plant a few more windchimes, two white rockers (like the ones in OC MD DG! I like these abbreviations!) I have a green bakers rack that is misplaced on my stair landing at the moment that is going to find a new home out there too. It should look VERY spiffy. If you don't like your house's design...make it show who you are at least, yes?

Ok- enough about all this. I am off to write new entry with pics about the writer's retreat I attended this weekend.

I would love to attend more retreats. But while I'm still nursing I think this one was it. Poor Rick drove me there (hour away) back home, back to Punderson so I could nurse (bursting by 4) and back at 9 pm so I could nurse again and drive back home at 10. I have to say the women at the retreat (who were delighted to meet Anna) were in awe of him (as I point out again in my next post.) So that's enough retreating this year.

But Ski, next year I do yours if you do mine!!!!

Tee hee. I think if DG's out of school we should all go. It's an amazing experience. All those creative supportive independent women in one room!